Share cool facts about your country

[J. van Deijck]

2 minutes ago, Piotrek said:

That officially makes it the best province  

Quoted for truth and the dialect spoken here has a distinctive pronunciation that's what I meant by 'softer'

 

3 minutes ago, Piotrek said:

Do you get many holidaymakers there? 

My city alone is the tourist spot, they are here for the whole year for the coast, there's typically a lot of people during the season, so the answer is yes

[MinnieMouse]

Don’t know if I would consider this cool, but it might be a little odd. In Sweden we don’t address people miss, mrs, mr or other titles. We simply call everyone by their first name. 

[J. van Deijck]

19 minutes ago, MinnieMouse said:

Don’t know if I would consider this cool, but it might be a little odd. In Sweden we don’t address people miss, mrs, mr or other titles. We simply call everyone by their first name. 

It's definitely cool. So different from English Mr or Mrs, or our meneer and mevrouw.

[daveb]

18 minutes ago, godverdomme said:

meneer and mevrouw

I guess those are related to German, mein herr and meine frau, but it tickles me that mevrouw looks like something a cat might say.  

[J. van Deijck]

28 minutes ago, daveb said:

I guess those are related to German, mein herr and meine frau, but it tickles me that mevrouw looks like something a cat might say.  

Doe maar, mevrouw while letting an elderly lady pass through the door first but you're right, that's the same rule. It came from mijn heer and mijn vrouw.

 

But on the official letters you will often find Dhr. if it's addressed to a man (de heer) and Mevr. when it's addressed to a woman (mevrouw). I haven't encountered a gender neutral version so far

[MinnieMouse]

12 hours ago, godverdomme said:

It's definitely cool. So different from English Mr or Mrs, or our meneer and mevrouw.

In Swedish it would be Herr, Fru or Fröken, but we haven’t used these titles in many years. For example, I had a university teacher named Elisabet, but her nickname was Lisa and she wanted people to call her that, so that was the name we used. 

 

I’m studying to become a high school teacher and if any of my students want to call me ’Fröken Last Name’ that would be okay, but I’d prefer being addressed with my first name.  

[Piotrek]

23 minutes ago, MinnieMouse said:

In Swedish it would be Herr, Fru or Fröken, but we haven’t used these titles in many years. For example, I had a university teacher named Elisabet, but her nickname was Lisa and she wanted people to call her that, so that was the name we used. 

 

I’m studying to become a high school teacher and if any of my students want to call me ’Fröken Last Name’ that would be okay, but I’d prefer being addressed with my first name.  

Speaking of addressing people, I remember reading a book by Astrid Lidgren, where one of the translator's notes said that in Sweden children often address random elderly people as "auntie/uncle". Is that still a thing, or something obsolete? I mean, I recall calling some of the mother's female friends "aunt [name]" as a child, but these were the people I somewhat knew.

[J. van Deijck]

50 minutes ago, MinnieMouse said:

In Swedish it would be Herr, Fru or Fröken, but we haven’t used these titles in many years. For example, I had a university teacher named Elisabet, but her nickname was Lisa and she wanted people to call her that, so that was the name we used. 

 

I’m studying to become a high school teacher and if any of my students want to call me ’Fröken Last Name’ that would be okay, but I’d prefer being addressed with my first name.  

But to be honest, teachers at my uni are being referred to as their first names as well. And we're allowed to refer to them informally. But that's not teally the case in primary schools

[MinnieMouse]

1 hour ago, Piotrek said:

Speaking of addressing people, I remember reading a book by Astrid Lidgren, where one of the translator's notes said that in Sweden children often address random elderly people as "auntie/uncle". Is that still a thing, or something obsolete? I mean, I recall calling some of the mother's female friends "aunt [name]" as a child, but these were the people I somewhat knew.

No, we don’t address random elderly people as auntie/uncle anymore. Only if the person actually is your auntie/uncle or maybe, as in your case, someone you know. 

[J. van Deijck]

1 hour ago, MinnieMouse said:

No, we don’t address random elderly people as auntie/uncle anymore. Only if the person actually is your auntie/uncle or maybe, as in your case, someone you know. 

I wanted to ask the same because in older Swedish books, that seemed to be a custom of some sorts. Thanks for clearing it out

[AavaMeri]

13 hours ago, Piotrek said:

Speaking of addressing people, I remember reading a book by Astrid Lidgren, where one of the translator's notes said that in Sweden children often address random elderly people as "auntie/uncle". Is that still a thing, or something obsolete? I mean, I recall calling some of the mother's female friends "aunt [name]" as a child, but these were the people I somewhat knew.

 

11 hours ago, MinnieMouse said:

No, we don’t address random elderly people as auntie/uncle anymore. Only if the person actually is your auntie/uncle or maybe, as in your case, someone you know. 

Instead in Finland, we do that. Specifically, small kids may refer any unnamed adult as a "täti" (aunt) or "setä" (uncle), while adults usually use those terms usually of significantly old people.

 

Mind you, no one literally thinks strangers as potential candidates for aunts or uncles; they are more equivalent to "lady/miss/madam/mister/sir", aka a polite way to address strangers. There are also some informal compound works made of those, like "tarhatäti" ("kindergarten auntie", usually a friendly way to address female kindergarten teachers). Usually a "täti"/"setä" is expected to be friendly.

 

Though: A kid calling an adult "täti"/"setä" is considered as alright and even cute (often adults accompanying children may also use those to address strangers for the kids, like "please let the setä to have a seat"), an adult using that mayyyy be thought as a bit improper. If I called a stranger "täti", it would be similar to "old [not-so-sharp-anymore] lady". (Unless there was a kid with me and I was addressing the woman in question to the kid.)

[Piotrek]

@ElloryJaye  @Calliers @daveb Almost 2 months ago there was an exchange in this thread about the term "gondola" in the context of travelling through air. Yesterday I had an opportunity to travel in one, so here's a photo of it for the curious  This particular system is in place in Świeradów Zdrój. Nice and cozy, which was particularly important yesterday because it'd started raining shortly before.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[J. van Deijck]

In Brussels, there's a bronze statue called Het Zinneke and it  resembles a peeing dog  his name itself means "mutt" or "bastard" in dialect of Brussels and is a reference to homeless dogs that used to be present in the area. The form of the statue is meant to be humorous, though, and is something quite typical for Brussels (it's not the first monument of a peeing individual in the city ).

 

Those who post in the photo threads have seen a photo of Zinneke that I've posted there

[Piotrek]

Speaking of statues, my city has one portaying a man with a bike. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pomnik_Starego_Marycha_w_Poznaniu The statue is an homage to the character called Stary Marych, the protagonist of a series of monologues and dialogues written in the local dialect. He was made famous thanks to a series of radio broadcasts and the statue bears the face of the actor who voiced the character. 

[J. van Deijck]

@Piotrek now that is awesome

[J. van Deijck]

Our grocery product labels are bilingual, but our leaflets for medication are trilingual, the third language being German. 

Here's the example of a leaflet from my box of meds. It's quite long

 

Spoiler

 

[OptimisticPessimist]

There are no active volcanoes in the UK

[J. van Deijck]

Belgian coast tram line is the longest tram line in the world.

[daveb]

3 hours ago, J. van Deijck said:

Belgian coast tram line is the longest tram line in the world.

I wish we had one on the coast here. And trains from Portland to the coast. I would probably go often.

[KVA1983]

The Irish language is one of the oldest living languages. Ireland has the largest number of red-haired people of any country in the world. Halloween originated in Ireland. Plus we're all mad😂 

[PathosBathosEthos]

The U.S.....its all true!😂 

[Piotrek]

21 hours ago, J. van Deijck said:

Belgian coast tram line is the longest tram line in the world.

Have you ridden the whole length of it? If so, how often can you see the sea from the windows?

 

Not sure how cool this fact is, but one of the most popular spectator sports in Poland is ski jumping (which I tend to post about a lot on AVEN ). It's probably a bit of a head-scratcher for people in other countries, seeing as ski jumping is rather niche even compared to other winter sports and you can count the countries seriously contesting top-tier competitions on the fingers of both hands). 

 

[J. van Deijck]

40 minutes ago, Piotrek said:

Have you ridden the whole length of it?

Yeah, I have. but visiting every town and city the east of Oostende and then the west of Oostende took me two days, so I got the weekend to do it but once I took the whole line from Knokke to De Panne and it takes about two hours ride.

 

43 minutes ago, Piotrek said:

If so, how often can you see the sea from the windows?

Only on the part from Raversijde to Middelkerke (and back), not that long, about 4 tram stops. It's worth seeing, though